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Digitalization of the Retail Food Environment: Modernizing Food Access, Highlighting Health Equity, and Identifying Opportunities for Future Research and Practice

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The digital transformation of the retail food environment is reshaping public health, producing both positive and negative impacts on how US consumers access food. This Research Report synthesizes these changes and explains why public health nutrition must modernize definitions and measures of food access, highlighting priority directions for new measurement approaches. Finally, we discuss future research and practice needs and directions, and describe how innovative nutrition education and behavior strategies, appropriate measurement, and policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) approaches can align public health and health equity efforts with the ongoing digital transformation of the food environment.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jneb.2025.11.014
Authors: Jared T. McGuirt, Megan R. Winkler, Yarisbel Melo Herrera, Bree Bode, Caitlin M. Lowery, Maya Vadiveloo
Institutions: University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Emory University, Tufts University, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Rhode Island
Language: English
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,840
Funders: Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network, University of California, San Francisco, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
OpenAlex ID: W7125970595
FWCI: 25.9
Cites: 59
Cited by: 3
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